President says no more coal power

Vows to switch to renewable energy

President Got a bay a Rajapaksa has shot down the setting up of any coal power plants, saying he has vowed to shift Sri Lanka towards renewable energy and does not want to become a joke before the world.

The decision now places in jeopardy the proposed 300 megawatt extension of the

Norochcholai Lak Vijaya coal power plant. It has been handed over without tender to the China Machinery Engineering Corporation ( CMEC) and considerable preparatory work has already been done.

Not only does the company have a fully fledged project office here, it has hired lawyers and financial consultants apart from other experts to implement the initiative. An environmental assessment has also been done. CMEC is the same company that built the other three units at Norochcholai.

President Rajapaksa made the announcement at the monthly review meeting of the Ceylon Electricity Board ( CEB), the Ministry of Power and the State Ministry of Solar Power, Wind

and Hyrdo-Power Generation. When the CEB outlined its plans for “clean energy” projects--the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) initiatives--he instructed the utility to adhere to his policy of generating 70 percent electricity needs through renewable energy by 2030.

LNG, however, is not renewable energy. While the CEB’s generation plan has several other thermal plants in the mix, these will now have to be rethought, official sources said. However, for the 70 percent renewable energy policy to be implemented, it must be mandated through a gazette. It was not revealed when the gazette would be published.

The earlier generation plan contained 55 percent renewable energy sources. When it rises to 70 percent, around 950mw of thermal plants planned till 2030 will have to be removed and replaced. But at Kerawalapitiya, a 350mw LNG plant is under construction and another has been planned. CEB sources said these were likely to go ahead.